The Sixth Silhouette
by TheBluePill
Summary: While filming in an abandoned prison for a video project, the gang gets more than they bargained for when they encounter things out of a real horror movie. Rated M for all things gory. Implied relationships with Jori and Bat.
1. In The Flesh

**Disclaimer: Victorious and all of its associated copyrights are not my property and I stake no claim to them.**

**A/N: Damn, where have I been? Long story short, RL is kicking my ass, so I haven't been able to write much. Ah, but here we are, a new story. This one's a bit odd, gotta say, but I hope it's interesting anyway. This is the one I gave a little preview of in the last chapter of Life in the Fast Lane, and no it really wasn't a spoiler, there is much much more to the story. This will be rated M, and not for sexy time, I'm afraid. That said, read on...**

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><p>The gang was sitting around Sikowitz's classroom, listening to his somewhat educational psychotic ramblings. Jade was sitting in the back, daydreaming while absentmindedly playing with Tori's hair, when she was suddenly ripped from her little world.<p>

"We are going to do video projects!" Sikowitz said enthusiastically as he sat on the stage. Most of the class groaned in annoyance, which made him frown.

"Oh, don't be a bunch of negative Nancy's. Now, we're grouping up in teams of six to create a short film on…." He paused for dramatic effect, to which most of the students were on the edge of their seats.

"Horror!" He suddenly blurted out.

"Woo!" Jade shouted with a sinister smirk.

Sikowitz gave her a scolding look, "Keep it PG, _Jade_."

She frowned, her party suddenly pooped upon, "You're no fun."

"And you're a very disturbed young lady," Sikowitz responded with a smile.

Jade leaned over to Tori, "How many weeks of detention do you think I'd get for using real blood?"

Tori shook her head and laughed at her girlfriend's antics, opting not to answer such a question.

Ignoring Jade once more, Sikowitz jumped up and clapped his hands together, "Alright! Robbie, Beck, Andre, Cat, Tori, and Jade, you will work as a team for your project."

The gang exchanged looks of excitement, until it clicked that Jade's name was also mentioned, to which they were both thrilled and dismayed. Everybody knew of Jade's talent in film production, but then again, it was no secret that her forte was horror, and she did a damn fine job, if you don't mind gut-wrenching themes of cynical or, in her view, comical pain. They knew they were in for one hell of a ride working with Jade on a horror flick.

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><p>"Are you sure this is the place? It's really scary looking," Cat said as she hid behind Beck.<p>

"Are you kidding? This place is perfect!" Jade said excitedly.

The six of them were standing outside their apparent filming location, as dictated by Jade. According to her, it was an old prison, once used to confine war captives, most often coming from the various battles spread throughout Japan. Though it hadn't been used in decades, she also claimed it had reports of 'unusual happenings' within the crumbling walls of the uninhabited, intimidating brick structure, which did nothing but seal the deal for Jade.

"Don't you think an abandoned prison is going a bit far?" Tori asked with a skeptical look to her girlfriend.

Jade scoffed, "A bit far? No way. There is no such thing as too far."

Beck focused on consoling his terrified girlfriend while Jade remained adamant that this place was the perfect location for their project. Tori sighed and gave up, knowing this was an argument she couldn't win.

"Robbie, give me the bolt cutters," Jade said as she walked up to the once prominent large front entrance of the building.

He complied, and Jade made short work of the chains holding the doors closed, one solid kick to the door had it flying open. Without further ado she strutted into the building, with the rest of the less enthusiastic teens in tow. Setting her backpack on what seemed to be the front desk of the building, Jade set to work getting her camera ready.

Noticing the others just standing there nervously looking around, she sighed and snapped them back into action, "Come on guys, get moving. We're losing daylight here."

Beck and Robbie both got out cameras as well, and once they were all ready, they set out to explore the building, with Jade leading the pack. After a good hour or so, they had gathered a decent amount of aesthetic footage, all of it being perfect for in-between shots for their horror film. They had long since split into three groups; Beck and Cat, Robbie and Andre, and Jade and Tori, so they could cover more area in less time. They were planning on coming back the next day to shoot some clips starring themselves to complete the video.

As Jade was grabbing a camera she had set up on a window sill for a time lapse shot, Tori was leaning on the doorframe of the room, responding to an irritating text from her sister. She looked up to see Cat walking down the hallway, which she thought was strange, as Beck was nowhere in sight.

"Cat!" Tori shouted, to which the redhead never even acknowledged that she had heard her. She frowned in annoyance as Jade came up her, looking down the hallway, also noticing Cat's retreating figure. She turned to look at Tori, and behind her saw Robbie at the other end of the hall, disappearing into a room.

"What the hell?" She said as she walked down the hall to see what Robbie was up to. When she got to the room he had gone into, it took her a moment to actually process it; Robbie wasn't in there. She looked to Tori with bewilderment.

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><p>On an entirely different floor of the building, Robbie and Andre were gathering up their equipment in a large mess hall type room, when Robbie noticed Beck at the other end of the room. He thought it was odd, as he was just standing there, looking at the wall. He tapped Andre's shoulder, getting his attention before pointing over to Beck. He looked at him with the same look of confusion, as out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tori standing in a doorway, her back also to them.<p>

"Yo, Tor! What are ya doin'?" Andre yelled to her, slowly becoming more and more confused as Tori never moved a muscle. Andre and Robbie looked at each other like, 'are we actually seeing this?' As they looked back to where they saw the two, they were both gone.

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><p>On the opposite end of the building on the ground floor, Beck and Cat were making their way back to the lobby, while Cat continued her incessant rant about the creepiness of the location.<p>

"I can't believe Jade made us do our film _here_," She whined.

Beck just gave her a comforting hug, "It is a good location for the genre, despite the eerie feeling here."

She just mumbled more incoherent things into his shirt, when Beck looked up and noticed Andre slowly ascending a staircase.

"Hey, Andre! What are you doing man?" Beck asked him as he pulled away from Cat. She looked at him for answers, as Andre never even looked back. They then glanced back at Andre, only to see he was nowhere in sight.

Beck shrugged and let it go, deciding to just get to the lobby. As they passed one of the offices, Beck saw out of the corner of his eye Jade just standing, looking out the window.

"Jadey, where's Tori?" Cat yelled to her, again looking at Beck for answers when Jade never spoke or even moved. When they looked back to Jade, they saw only an empty room.

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><p>Jade and Tori had forgotten about their strange sightings, just gathering the last of their cameras and making their way downstairs. They went down one flight of stairs and turned to go down the second, only to see <em>themselves<em> standing at the bottom.

Exact duplicates of them were standing like statues at the bottom of the stairs with their backs to them. As the girls stood there in shock, their twins suddenly began to turn around, finally showing their faces, or lack thereof.

Tori gasped when she saw herself and Jade, as if in a mirror, but neither had a face; it was just blank skin. They both suddenly had a white hot pain on their forearms, but only for a moment. And both were speechless as their counterparts abruptly dissipated into nothingness.

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><p>Robbie and Andre were spanning the last hallway to get to the lobby, reviewing some of their footage as they walked. Andre looked over to Robbie's small viewing screen to see the short clips he had shot of various parts of the building.<p>

Robbie shifted his hold on the camera, in turn accidentally bumping the camera button, turning the video back on. In the little screen, they saw in real time, right in front of them, perfect matches of themselves. They both looked up in shock to see the figures turn around just long enough to expose the same lack of face, as a searing pain ripped through their arms. When they looked back up, the two faceless matches turned on their heels and disappearing into opposite walls of the hallway.

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><p>Cat and Beck had put away most of their equipment, and were going through old archives in the offices behind the front desk. Beck decided it'd be a cool shot to get some footage of the various files spread about the room, just for more of an aesthetic touch.<p>

As he recorded those clips, Cat stood off to the side, so she wasn't in the videos. Beck put his camera down to switch around the placement, Cat offering her assistance in the task. Suddenly, they heard footsteps out in the hallway. They looked up just in time to watch duplicates of themselves walk by the room, before the door to said room violently slammed shut on its own accord; this strange occurrence was accompanied by an unexplained burning sensation on their arms.

Cat screamed uncontrollably in fear, attracting the attention of the others, who rushed to find them.

"What the hell happened, Cat?" Jade asked as she ran into the room, out of breath from running so far.

She was shaking in fear, seeking refuge in Beck's embrace as she struggled to speak, "Th-the door, it slammed shut after we saw these, _things!_"

Andre spoke up in an apprehensive voice, "These 'things' wouldn't happen to be your twins with no face, would they?"

"You got it. And just before the door slammed, we both felt a weird burn on our arms." Beck grumbled.

"We saw those too, and that same thing happened with our arms," Tori said as she hugged Jade's arm for comfort.

"Fuck this, let's get out of here," Jade said, turning to the door. The rest of the group had no objections, all quickly gathering their stuff and heading out of the building.

After she had dropped everyone but Tori off at their houses, Jade drove the two back to her home. Beck and Robbie had left their cameras with her so she could review the footage and edit it to her desires.

The two girls settled on Jade's bed with their laptops and headphones, setting to work reviewing all of the videos they had recorded. Jade got rather bored with it, and decided to look at one last set before retiring for the night.

The set was from the 3rd floor of the south wing of the building, there were six clips in total. The videos were pretty good, and she made a note to put them in the final cut. After she reviewed those, she and Tori put their computers away and called it a night.

The next day, after Tori had left, Jade decided to put the set of clips from the previous night onto her desktop computer so she could better review the audio. Halfway through the first video, she heard a very quiet voice. She replayed it, with the audio enhanced.

_"You will be marked."_

There was no way either of the guys could've talked that quietly or in that voice, so Jade's level of confusion was through the roof. She just let it go, though, and proceeded to the next clip. This one was no different.

_"Each mark represents a target."_

She was thoroughly freaked out now, and watched each of the other videos, listening for that voice. Just as expected, it came through once in each video.

"_You must eliminate your designated targets in order."_

_"Nobody must know."_

_"One, four, two, five, three, six."_

_"Failure to comply results in your demise. You have six days."_

Jade wrote down each of the messages, in the order she got them in the videos. Now confused beyond belief, she sent a mass text to the other five members of her group of friends.

_**Need you guys at my house, ASAP**_

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><p><strong>AN: This is gonna be one of _those_ stories. This is going to be kind of like a mix of _I Am Number Four_, _The 13 Assassins_, and all of those _Blair Witch Project_ type movies. I'll have the next chapter up in a day or two, until then review and let me know what you think so far.**

**The name of the chapter is a song by Pink Floyd, so credits to them for being _fantastic_.**


	2. Gathering Intelligence

**Disclaimer: Victorious and all of its associated copyrights are not my property and I stake no claim to them.**

**A/N: When I get back into writing, my creativity just decides to run wild. That said, I have another multichapter story, but I flipped into nerd mode for it. So what do you guys think? Would you be interested in reading a Jori story about gaming? (Not like Game On) Either way, I am working on the sequel to Life in the Fast Lane, so my sudden desire to write these other stories didn't entirely overshadow that one. And I'm rambling, read on!**

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><p>Receiving confirmation texts from some, Jade paced furiously in her living room as she waited for the rest to arrive. Once they were all in attendance, she gave them the rundown of what she had come across. Handing them the piece of paper with the messages, she told them, "That's all of what was said in those videos. Whatever that voice is, whatever it means, I think it has something to do with what we saw."<p>

They were all quiet, trying to process what was even happening, and Robbie eventually spoke up nervously, "Jade, I think I know what's going on."

Jade motioned for him to continue, and he pulled up the sleeve of his sweatshirt, exposing the large number 4 on his forearm, "I saw this this morning, I think that's what it meant by, 'You are each marked.' And I'm willing to bet any money that the burns we felt last night were these."

The rest of them looked, and they all indeed had numbers now.

"So what does this mean? Why didn't they show up last night?" Beck asked.

Robbie cleared his throat, "See, we're each marked with a number," he said, showing his on his arm as evidence, "Each number represents a person somewhere in the world. These people are all apparently horrible excuses for human beings, and in turn, they'll pay for it. We've been chosen to make sure these people pay the ultimate price; death."

Their eyes widened at his words and some let out gasps of horror, but Robbie continued, "They're not well known criminals though, which means at least two things; the feds aren't after them, and they'll be easy to find for that very reason. That in mind, according to this list Jade assembled, we have to kill in order, we also only have six days to complete all six assassinations, and nobody must find out who committed the murders. If any one of these rules isn't followed, we _all_ die."

"What's the order?" Tori asked hesitantly.

"Well first is one, according to this list, next is four, two, five, three, and finally six," Robbie said.

They all double checked their numbers, and made a list of their names and numbers in order.

1. Cat

4. Robbie

2. Beck

5. Tori

3. Andre

6. Jade

"Alright so we know that, who's our targets?" Jade asked impatiently.

Cat let out a squeal and hid herself in Beck's side, "I don't want to kill anybody!"

Robbie looked at Cat with a sad expression, but answered Jade anyway, "My guess is the answer is in those videos somewhere."

"Then let's find them," Jade said, making her way to her room to grab the cameras so they could all review the videos. After retrieving all of their laptops, the six teens set to work inspecting each of the clips, one by one.

2 hours later they met back up to review their findings. Comparing their numbers with the names and hints of locations they heard, they made a more detailed list.

1. Cat: Joshua Hartman, age 35, American serial rapist – second city demon

4. Robbie: Vincent Trevisano, age 39, Sicilian crime boss – a splash of color

2. Beck: Lucas Preston, age 24, Australian robber – theory of evolution

5. Tori: Jose Cavalcanti, age 43, Colombian drug lord – street tycoon

3. Andre: Eva Payne, age 26, European mass-murderer – deceptive entertainment

6. Jade: Ambrosine Rossi, age 17, Los Angeles high school student – cloak and dagger

"Well this looks fun…" Jade muttered as she looked over the list.

"Is this a joke? Please tell me this is a joke," Andre said anxiously.

Robbie stood up and slightly raised his hand in a vague gesture to gather attention, "I believe the marks showed up when Jade listened to those videos. I really hate to be the bearer of bad news, again, but those six days it said we had? It's already started, at the same time these marks appeared; the timer started as soon as at least _one_ of us knew about what was going on. "

Five pairs of bewildered eyes were suddenly locked on him, "Fuck. What are we waiting for then? We've got work to do," Jade said with a noticeable amount of annoyance.

"We can't just kill people!" Tori exclaimed, exasperated with her girlfriend's willingness to murder.

"Look, it's these _criminals_, or us. Take your pick. Haven't you ever heard the legends of that place?" Jade replied.

Tori frowned, "Why would I know them? I'm not obsessed with all things morbid."

"Ignoring that, I just thought it was bullshit when I read it, but it said that if you encounter your doppelganger in there, you die. The only way to cheat death is to kill someone else before your time."

"If it can be anyone, why was…_it_ so specific about who we needed to kill?" Beck asked.

"I think I know the reason," Robbie started, "Jade I don't know if you've heard about this, but there's another legend that has no specific place, it just _happens_. There's a portrayal of Death in Breton Mythology, the Ankou. There're multiple myths surrounding this being, and one seems like it matches up. Basically, people can be face-to-face with Death at any time, even if they aren't meant to die; it's a test. The good live, the bad die. My best guess is these people all encountered Death, and failed the test."

"Alright…so why us?" Tori inquired, voicing the question they were all thinking.

He looked around nervously, "Well, I believe it's because we've all faced Death, and passed the test."

"Wait, _Jade_ passed a good or bad test?" Andre said with a laugh.

Jade rolled her eyes and sighed, "Go on, Rob."

"It's most likely selected at random, or, which situation we would each handle best."

"I'd handle a situation of killin' a chick better than any of the others?!" Andre whined.

Jade shrugged, "I think they all fit."

"Yours isn't even a criminal though," Tori pointed out.

Jade looked at the paper again and pointed to hers, "'Cloak and Dagger', you sure about that?"

"Alright, alright. Let's focus here, we can at least figure out the location of these people and get some info on them. We have some time," Beck told them.

Getting back on their laptops again, the gang set to work on each of their 'riddles'. Cat was probably the most reluctant of them all, but complied anyway when she realized the reality of the situation and the potential consequences. She looked at her clue for a moment and thought, before typing 'second city' into the search engine, and it came up with records of Chicago, IL. She figured out that Chicago was nicknamed 'The Second City'. After that, she used the police database Tori technically hacked into to find his criminal records, and his address from there.

Robbie was rather nervous with the whole 'kill or be killed' concept, especially when it wasn't just his life at stake. He knew what he had to do, and looked over his information. He recognized the 'Sicilian' part of the clue, with that he looked up Sicily, Italy; from there he browsed local attractions to get a feel for the city. His attention was caught on an art museum, when he went to the street view of Google Maps, he could vaguely see a large warehouse in the background, covered in colorful graffiti. He wrote down the address of the museum with the rest of his information, figuring he could look into it more when he got there.

Level-headed and stoic as always, Beck was willing to do whatever he needed to, to protect himself and his friends. With his information, he was slightly confused at first, as his clue was rather vague and seemingly just out of left field. While looking at the map of Australia to decide where to look first, he briefly saw one city name that rang a bell. Looking again, it was Darwin; he knew he had heard that name before and typed it in the search. It of course came up with Darwin, Australia, but also of Charles Darwin, a major contributor to the theory of evolution. He was easily able to put two and two together to realize his target was in Darwin, he wrote down that information and decided to go with the flow when he got there.

Tori's target already had a minor criminal record, so it was easy to find him once she, uh, _borrowed_ her Dad's information to the police database. She looked at her clue again, and thought that a 'street tycoon' wouldn't work out of his expensive penthouse, given that it may be compromised. But knowing her target's address, it would be fairly easy to locate him from there.

Andre was uncharacteristically anxious, but considering he was facing death, whether giving or receiving, he had a right. He looked over his clue, and took a wild shot in the dark and thought that his target was in some type of entertainment business, and used her popularity to lure victims to their death. He figured that should be his starting point; finding out where Miss Payne worked, find his way into her view, and trick her into thinking she had the upper hand.

Jade was the most kept together of them all, almost excited at the whole aspect of the situation. Though she was slightly put off when she read over her clues. Being a writer, she knew the 'cloak and dagger' phrase to be a term to mean inconspicuously dangerous, so she wasn't thrown off for long. There were very little records of the girl, being as she was under 18. She decided to ask Tori to look in the police database for some type of lead. There turned out to be no records of 'Ambrosine', or even of her parents.

With their newfound information, the gang began a reconnaissance to go over their findings.

"So what'd we all find?" Jade asked.

Cat started first, "Mine is a 35 year old rapist named Joshua Hartman, residing in Chicago."

"39 year old Vincent Trevisano, Sicilian Crime Boss, probably works out of a warehouse in Sicily, Italy," Robbie added.

"Lucas Preston, 24, robber from Darwin, Australia," Beck said.

Tori spoke up next, "Jose Cavalcanti, 43, drug lord working out of a building near his penthouse in Bogota, Colombia."

Andre tried to lighten the mood next with a joke, "Got myself a date with Miss Eva Payne, 26, serial killer from Europe."

"Looks like I'm the only one staying home. Ambrosine Rossi, 17, school student right here in LA. No other leads." Jade finished.

Beck looked to her, dumbfounded, "What? Okay, everybody else makes sense, but yours?" He pointed out.

Jade shrugged, "Clue says 'cloak and dagger', so I'm assuming this chick's got some secrets."

"So wait, we got all of our locations, now how are we going to get there?" Tori questioned, to which everyone nodded, also wondering the same thing.

"We'll put a dent in my father's bank account, no big deal," Jade said as she got up to retrieve her father's credit cards.

They all let it go, figuring they'd let Jade take the heat if they got in trouble. A credit card was given to each of them, to which they were somewhat baffled by, wondering why the hell this man had so many credit cards. Afterwards they all went back to their homes to pack for their trips.

After everybody had left, Jade went to her room to rest until they all came back. Tori was the first, letting herself in and slamming the door loudly to announce her arrival. The noise woke up Jade, who got up to greet her intrusive guest.

"Can't you just knock like normal people?" Jade grumbled as she walked into the living room.

Tori laughed, "You're not one to talk."

"True. Hey, you wanna help me a second?" Tori agreed and followed Jade to her father's den, where there was a large gun case. Jade went over to the desk at the other side of the room and retrieved a key from one of the drawers, going back over to the case and unlocking it. Inside were hundreds of different guns and knives, of all shapes and sizes. She looked through them carefully, selecting 6 pistols and 6 knives, one for each of them. Setting those aside, she went to get the ammunition necessary for the guns she picked.

After Jade finished her selection she and Tori took the weapons back to the living room. Jade set to work loading the guns after checking to make sure every magazine was full, just in case, and took care to put the safety on each after loading them.

As she did that, the rest of the gang arrived periodically, Beck and Cat getting there first, Andre not far behind, and Robbie last.

Once they were all there, they sorted out all of their gear. Each person had their necessities, the credit card, a change of clothes again just in case, and their weapons. After they had everything sorted out, they split into groups of three to drive to the airport; Tori and Andre being driven by Jade, and Cat and Robbie being driven by Beck.

Arriving at the LAX, they all used their separate credit cards to buy tickets to their target locations.

Cat's plane was the first to leave; she reluctantly got up and gave everybody hugs before trudging over to her terminal to board her flight. Andre was next, then Beck, Robbie, and finally Tori. After a prolonged goodbye to Jade, Tori left as well, leaving Jade alone in LA.

_**Targets remaining: **__6_

_**Time remaining: **__5 days - 16 hours - 27 minutes - 34 seconds_

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><p><strong>AN: Posting this now, as I'll be very busy this weekend. Monday will most likely be the next chapter. The targets/time remaining will continue to be on the future chapters, just to show progression. Hope you enjoyed the chapter and let me know what you thought!**

**For reference, in case anyone doesn't know, a doppelganger is a spiritual 'twin' of a living person. Also, the Ankou is a -real legend- (literally just saw that episode of Avatar), and such experiences have been reported of people dying if they weren't kind to 'Death'.**


	3. Ain't No Rest for the Wicked

**Disclaimer: Victorious and all of its associated copyrights are not my property and I stake no claim to them.**

**A/N: Here's where we get into the M rating, folks. _"Does it involve sneaking and stabbing? Please say yes!"_  
><strong>

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><p>As Cat arrived in Chicago, she got off the plane and once more had to endure the excruciating pain in the ass that was airport security. Getting out onto the street, the weapons felt like a thousand pounds in her backpack, as if the weight of this task on her shoulders was suddenly within those items. She took a deep breath and snapped herself completely out of her childish façade; there was no time for that now.<p>

She decided to call a cab, and asked to be taken to a drug store first, there, she'd get rubber gloves. From the countless times Jade had been over at her house, she had seen many of those crime shows, and knew that if she were to use the gun, the gunshot residue would be her downfall in an instant. Even after washing your hands countless times, it still shows up on the tests. Taking that into account, she also remembered another important fact, and she texted Jade for a confirmation that it was okay.

_**Cat: Hey, Jade, would it be the end of the world if the gun wasn't returned?**_

Her reply came soon after Cat got to the drug store.

_**Jade: I didn't expect anybody to bring anything back, why?**_

_**Cat: Gunshot residue tests; rubber gloves would clear my hands but the gun would be all the evidence they'd need to put me behind bars. I'd have to get rid of it.**_

_**Jade: Yeah, good call. Scrape off the serial number first though. Good luck.**_

After buying the gloves, she got back in the cab and went to a hotel near her target's address. As they were driving she asked about local attractions and such, places she could possibly look if all else fails. She paid the cab driver with what little paper money she did bring, before going inside the hotel to check in. She lugged the seemingly overloaded backpack down the hall, to the elevator, then down the entire length of the hall again. Up in her room, she set her things on the floor and lay down on the bed, debating on where to go from there.

_Nobody can know who committed the murders, so going all public execution probably isn't the brightest idea. Subtlety is my friend, but this bastard lives in the shadows. If I'm to survive this, I'll have to use his own force against him, then when he's least expecting it, POW! Right in the kisser._

Her final decision was going old school. Sliding the knife in her pocket, and the gun in a holster in the back of her pants concealed by her sweatshirt, she set off on foot for her target's home. Much to her delight, it had gotten dark while she was in the hotel.

She pulled up her hood to hide her signature red hair and put on the gloves, then started walking, reading street signs as best she could, and cheating a little bit with the Google Maps app on her phone. Finally, a small house came into view, with an address she recognized very well.

She went up to the door and knocked, and a few moments later a scruffy looking man answered the door, looking her over like prey. She was immediately disgusted by this creep, but summoned up her acting skills to pull through.

"Hi, my car broke down; can I use your phone?" Cat asked in her perfected innocent voice.

The man grinned devilishly, "Why, of course…"

He let her in, and pretended to show her to a phone, but Cat knew all too well what this _monster_ was up to. She was prepared when he took no time in jumping her, slamming her against a wall and attempting to take her clothes off. _Hasn't this guy ever heard of foreplay? Damn._

As much as she hated it, she knew such measures were necessary, and allowed him to distract himself. She managed to get her hand behind herself and remove the gun from the holster, also flipping off the safety and pulling back the hammer. Joshua was having such a wonderful time he didn't notice the warm metal pressed against his bare chest, until she fired, turning that warm sensation into a white-hot burn.

Cat was very careful to step away quickly so his blood didn't get on her, as Joshua slumped against the wall, sliding down to the floor.

She pressed the gun to his back and fired a second time for good measure. After she checked his pulse, satisfied that he was dead, she backed off and pulled herself back together.

"Mission accomplished," she muttered to herself. Of course then she realized she wasn't out of the woods yet, she still had to get away and dispose of the evidence. Remembering that, she put the safety back on the gun, took off the rubber gloves, and turned them inside out. She concealed the gun once more, pulled up her hood, and made her way out the door. She used the gloves to close the door to keep her fingerprints off of the knob as well.

Cat managed to make it back to the hotel, and decided to spend the night in Chicago, as it was very late. When she got back to the hotel, she took the bag out of the trashcan in the room and threw the gloves in there. After that, she got out the gun and the knife, using the knife to carefully scrape off all traces of any means to track the owner of the gun. After she finished that, she put the gun in the bag and the knife back in her backpack, sliding both under the bed.

Before going to sleep, she pulled out her phone to text the others. Though her plan went off without a hitch, she was restless all night, constant nightmares of the murder plaguing her thoughts. Waking at a ridiculous 5:30 AM, she turned on the news as she got her things ready to leave. As she was about ready to go, she heard the news reporter, "Early this morning, a friend of 35 year-old Joshua Hartman found the man dead in his home. Currently, there are no suspects."

She was giddy as she turned off the TV and left the hotel. Cat knew she had one more task, and walked around town until she found a garbage dump full of useless crap; nobody would look there. She hid the bag, and then went back to the main roads, walking a ways before calling a cab to go back to the airport, and catching the first flight back to LA. As she was sitting in her seat on the plane, she looked down at her arm, and uncontrollably smiled as she saw her mark was gone.

_**Cat: One down, number four's up. Good luck, Rob.**_

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><p>Robbie was stoked to be visiting Italy, hell, he was stoked to be leaving the country, he just wish it were under better circumstances. After getting quite the fuss from Sicilian airport security over his choice of cargo, he called a cab to take him to a hotel for the night, the time change and jet lag already getting to him.<p>

The next morning he left bright and early, very happy to see that just a few hours prior, Cat had sent a text notifying them that number four was already good to go. He called for a ride to the museum, and as he drove he thought desperately to think of a game plan. One doesn't exactly waltz up to a damn mobster, let alone the _boss_ and put a bullet through him, then expect to make it out alive and undetected.

He figured his best bet would be to kiss some major ass and climb his way to the top of the hierarchy, and then somehow get Mr. Boss man alone. After thinking about that plan for some time, he realized that approach would take days, weeks, or even months. He needed a better game plan.

When he arrived at the museum, he paid the cab driver and bid his farewells in a language the poor guy only heard as gibberish.

Robbie walked around for a bit, his 'plan' in shambles at the moment. He really wasn't sure what his plan was _before_ even getting into the mafia, bit of a flaw in itself. As he was just wandering around, he noticed a shady looking group of men sitting around the steps to a building.

"What do you want, punk?" One man called out as Robbie approached.

Summoning up his acting skills, he took on a confident, fearless bravado, "I was wondering if you knew anything about the Sicilian Mafia; I'm looking to join."

Another intervened sharply, "You're not of Sicilian blood; we don't need you."

He internally groaned in annoyance, his resolve now shot to hell, Robbie decided he'd best take his leave. He quickly left, thanking his lucky stars the men didn't chase after him. He walked around the city aimlessly, trying to come up with a new plan, not noticing he had walked into a pretty much deserted part of town.

Robbie took out his phone to check for information on the Mafia, when he heard a voice, "…Vinny, please, that hit last week almost got me in the slammer. You pull one more stunt like that and you're gonna find yourself six feet under, you hear?"

"Who the hell do you think you are? Do you know who I am? I can have you killed so fast you won't even realize it."

Robbie snuck to the side of a building, just out of sight of the two men, who were engaged in a heated argument in an alleyway.

"We'll just see about that, won't we, _Trevisano_." _Bingo_, thought Robbie, as he knew he had his target.

He was quick to duck out of sight as a man came stomping out of the alley, walking in the opposite direction Robbie was in. Robbie figured this was his chance, sincerely hoping that the man still left in the alley was Trevisano, and pulled out his knife, deciding that it would be better to do it quietly.

Creeping into the alley, he saw Vincent had his back to him. _Perfect._

Robbie quietly but quickly ran up behind him, grabbing his head in a modified chokehold as he slid the blade across his throat, directly over the jugular vein, effectively splitting that open. Just as icing on the cake, he made a quick stab to the chest cavity, around where his heart would be. Vincent barely had any time to react before he slumped down to the ground, passing out almost immediately from blood loss.

Just for confirmation he didn't make a hit on the wrong man, he pulled out the guy's wallet, checking his ID.

_Vincent Trevisano, born July__14 1974_

Now sure that he had the right man, and figuring that Trevisano would bleed to death within the next 15 seconds, Robbie made a break for it, running as fast as he could out of the alleyway and down the street. After about four blocks, he stopped to catch his breath before pulling out his phone to call get a ride to the airport. He suddenly remembered the bloody knife he still had, and realized he should probably ditch it.

To his luck, he soon came across the coast, and was easily able to throw the knife far out into the ocean. Considering the handle of the knife was wood, he figured the water would destroy all hints of identification, just in case it did happen to wash ashore. Afterwards, he decided that he shouldn't stick around, and left as soon as he possibly could.

Making it through security once more, he collapsed into his seat on the plane, exhausted. He took out his phone to text the others, but before he did, he checked the local Sicilian news reports.

_**The infamous crime boss Vincent Trevisano was found dead in an alley only a few hours ago; the state of the body suggests the murder was very recent. It also suggests whoever carried out this act, wanted to make sure he never breathed again. No suspects have been named so far; Trevisano was pronounced dead at the age of 39.**_

Robbie knew he was in the clear now, and after he texted the others, he noticed his arm was now unmarked.

_**Robbie: Four down, two's up. Go for it, Beck.**_

* * *

><p>Beck had been in Australia for about a day now, waiting for the green light on his hit. He woke up late at night to the sound of his phone, which he had set extra loud just in case. He checked and saw a text from Robbie; it was go time. Beck got up and removed the gun from the case he was given, loading it just like Jade had shown him, taking care to make sure the safety was on before putting it in the holster.<p>

He tested his switchblade, satisfied that it worked perfectly; he used the clip on it to attach it to his belt, as well as the holster with the gun, both being concealed by his sweatshirt. The previous day he had looked around town, but found no clues of his target. Beck left his hotel room shortly after that, leaving the hotel entirely to go out into the shroud of darkness. To be blatantly honest, this was a rather shitty part of town, and there were absolutely no streetlights.

Using a flashlight app on his phone, Beck somewhat crapped on the idea of being discreet, but he had to see. He realized his phone was dying, and he probably shouldn't use the flashlight anymore, so he put it away and tried to allow his eyes to adjust to the darkness. As he walked, he had a stroke of luck as he saw a man sneaking around the side of a house.

Beck smirked in realization; his assassination had just gotten ten times easier. If that was Lucas, that is. For some odd reason though, Lucas saw him, and approached him cautiously.

"Hey, you there. You wanna make some money?" Preston asked Beck.

"Sure, what'dya have in mind?" Beck asked. Lucas then proceeded to reveal the entirety of his plan to break into this person's house. Of course he went along with it and naïve little Preston believed every word of Beck's subterfuge. Acting really does come in handy.

Beck decided to get some confirmation before acting, "So what's your name?"

"Lucas," he mumbled, extending his hand for a handshake. Beck reluctantly shook the man's hand and they snuck around to some bushes behind a house. Preston was explaining something, but Beck wasn't really listening, he was just thinking of the brilliant plan he just came up with. Killing Lucas was going to be a walk in the park.

Beck pulled out his switchblade, bracing it against his belt as he opened it, as to not make any noise. As Lucas was distracted with looking through a text of what they were supposed to be going for in this house, Beck dug a little hole in the ground, putting the knife in, blade side up. When he was finished it was sticking up about the entire length of the blade, the whole five inches of it.

"Alright kid, let's hit it," Lucas said, standing up. As he did, Beck did as well, watching his moves closely. Right when he was in the approximate range, Beck stuck his foot out, effectively tripping Lucas, causing him to fall directly onto the blade. He cried out in pain, rolling over and exposing the protruding knife.

Trying to hold onto the reason why he was doing this, Beck put his foot on Lucas' chest, pulling out the knife and using it to finish him off, dodging to the side quickly to stay out of range of the initial spurts of blood. He left Lucas to bleed out after that, knowing it wouldn't take but mere seconds.

He wiped the blood off on the grass and put the blade away, concealing it and the gun before making his way back to the hotel. After he cleaned up the blade, and took a shower himself, he gathered up his belongings set off to the airport. He stopped to ditch the knife in a dumpster before catching a late night flight back to LA. While he was waiting for his plane to be called, he noticed the news on one of the TVs.

_**This just in, Lucas Preston, age 24, was found murdered outside of a house in the northern territories. Police are still investigating the scene, trying to find a clue as to who could've done this to such a young man.**_

_Yeah, 'cause he was entirely innocent._ Beck thought as his plane was called. As the plane reached maximum altitude, Beck looked down at his arm, now unmarked. He sent a text to the others before drifting off to sleep.

_**Beck: Had a very nice 'trip'. Two down, five up.**_

**Targets remaining: 3**

**Time remaining: 3 days – 18 hours – 47 minutes – 14 seconds**

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><p><strong>AN: _"...Need to sharpen my blade...make it shiny, gleamy, and oh so deadly..."_ Those quotes just fit too well. Watching nothing but crime shows for a good two years actually paid off; no, none of this is written from personal experience... Except the airport security part, they really do try too hard. Stay tuned for the next chapter, and the one(s?) after that, it gets better...**

**The two quotes I used in the A/N are both from Skyrim, specifically used by my favorite psychotic maniac, Cicero. Most people should recognize the "POW! Right in the kisser" quote if you've ever watched the Honeymooners, or at least Family Guy; I just had to throw that in for some laughs. Lastly the name of the chapter is from the song _Aint No Rest for the Wicked_ by Cage the Elephant, brilliant song.**


	4. Sadistic Seduction

**Disclaimer: Victorious and all of its associated copyrights are not my property and I stake no claim to them.**

**A/N: This is gonna be a short one, mostly because it's just more setup to the main part of this story. So yeah, read on.**

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><p>Tori was just absolutely jumping up and down and bouncing off the walls in excitement for being in the drug capital of South America. Translation; she wanted to go home, <em>now.<em> The security in Colombia was ridiculous, even more so because she had brought suspicious cargo. It took her hours to get through it, then at least one more to find a hotel, having to walk.

She settled into the room, leaving most of her stuff packed, but removing the gun and knife. Loading the gun just like Jade showed her, she put it in the holster she was given before picking up the butterfly knife. Jade had taught her a bit about how to use those, though Tori never really got the hang of the motions. It beat the hell out of her hand every time she tried to flip it, and one time if Jade hadn't stopped her she probably would've cut her own damn finger off. She didn't really understand why _she_ got that knife.

She set the two items down on the nightstand before settling in to bed to sleep off some of the time. She managed to kill a full 24 hours after sleeping and looking around the city. Back in her motel room, she clipped the holster on to her pants and slid the knife in her pocket. After she was satisfied that everything was as ready as it'd ever be, she left the hotel to scout out places she'd seen on her previous outings. Four hours into aimlessly wandering the city, she came upon what seemed to be a theme park, and immediately thought of Jade when she saw the name, _National Coffee Park._

She laughed and went to send a text to Jade.

_**Tori: Found a good place for a vacation…**_

_**Jade: In the midst of an assassination plot and you're thinking about vacation? This has got to be good…**_

Tori rolled her eyes, typical Jade.

_**Tori: National Coffee Park.**_

_**Jade: When's our next break from school?**_

She had to laugh now, so easy to get Jade interested. _Offer her coffee and she'll do anything._ She wasn't able to respond though, because she was approached by a man that looked eerily similar to the mugshot she saw of Jose on the police database.

"What's a, uh…little girl like you doing out in these dangerous streets…alone?" He said in a voice that made her skin crawl. Though severely unnerved, she saw a golden opportunity.

"I'm not really sure, I just got here and don't know the city very well."

He had a devilish grin that reminded her of Jade's, though Jade's was actually a good thing to see, most of the time anyway. He spent no time in waiting to ask her to come with him. Tori complied, knowing she could hold her own if things got bad.

The man took her back to his car, where she assumed he was driving her to his house. Just to kill the uncomfortable silence and to get confirmation, she asked, "So what's your name?"

"Jose, and yours?"

"Tori."

He grinned, "As in Victoria?"

"You got it," she said, trying to sound friendly.

Jose was quiet after that as he continued to drive. They eventually came to the fancy looking penthouse Tori saw online. He led her inside, and got straight to the point, "You want some snow?"

She was confused at first, but it eventually clicked that by snow he meant coke. She decided to ease his guard a bit, "For free?" She asked with a suggestive smile.

"Maybe…" he started with a thoughtful look, "How about you do a job for me in return?" Sincerely hoping it didn't involve removing her clothes, she agreed to the deal. "I've got some…stuff for a friend of mine. This stuff is illegal to have outside of labs so don't get caught."

"What is it?" She asked, genuinely curious.

He went over to retrieve a small bag filled with a white powder, "Barium Acetate, silent death, if you will."

It took all of her strength not to drop her jaw on the floor at his words, he barely noticed, as he just gave it to her before acting as if nothing was going on, "I got a buddy bringing over some Chinese food later, you wanna stay for it?"

Thanking Death for such a brilliant opportunity, she agreed. Tori endured a good hour of his touchy-feely tendencies before Jose's buddy came back, with food that instantly made her hungry. As they settled down to eat, Tori heard the notification sound from a text on her phone, from Beck.

_**Beck: Had a very nice 'trip'. Two down, five up.**_

She grinned at the text, unfortunately attracting Jose's attention, "What's that?"

Tori struggled to think of something clever, fast, finally settling with something that'd interest him more, "Just a text from my father letting me know that my inheritance went through. So…what've you got?"

Jose and his friend shared a 'fuck yes' look, "Aye, Joe, you wanna help me get some merch for this lovely lady?"

After a nod of agreement, the two got up to go look for whatever they could sell to Tori. She practically danced in her seat as she realized this was her opportunity. Tori grabbed the Barium Acetate from where it was sitting next to her, as she also noticed a spoon on the table, covered in burn marks. _Heroin._ She took a chance and picked up the spoon off of the table, dipping it in the white powder and putting two spoonfuls into Jose's rice and beans.

Tori got the spoon and bag put back where they were just before the two men came out from a back room. For the next half hour Tori listened to him go on and on about all the drugs he had as he finished eating his food.

She managed to convince him she'd be back the next day with her money to buy some snow and weed. He let her go, no doubt with the mindset that if she talked, he could just have her killed. She took the Barium Acetate with her, planning to just get rid of it. As she was walking back to the hotel, she managed to find a sewer filled with garbage, and figured that was as good a place as any.

When she got back to the hotel, she turned on the news just for some background noise as she got ready for bed. She laid down and took out her phone to call Jade, as she's been doing every night. While she was talking to Jade, she noticed a 'breaking news' story up on the TV. Apparently the infamous and evasive drug lord of Colombia died just an hour prior, his friend being the one to call for help.

"I never thought I'd be so happy to know that someone was dead…" she mumbled.

Jade just laughed, "Text Andre, we're running close on time."

_**Tori: Not sure if I'll ever look at Chinese food the same again. Your turn Andre.**_

* * *

><p>While everyone else was out plotting their assassinations, Andre was having the time of his life in England. After some research and a few phone calls, he found out that he was right – partially. Eva was indeed in the entertainment business, the raunchy kind. He made an appointment for himself on the night Tori should have completed her hit.<p>

That night he got himself all decked out in his 'stud' attire, hoping that Eva would be charmed into letting her guard down. He had gotten a text from Cat a few days ago letting him know that since he was probably going to be using the gun, that he should wear gloves or some type of protection on his hand to prevent GSR from sticking around.

Going through the same ritual all the others did, he prepared all of his stuff to leave, finally leaving the hotel with a purpose. He was very thankful for the fake ID Jade had given him before he left, as he needed it to get into the apparent strip club Eva worked at. After making it past the rather scary bouncer, he looked around the place, soon spotting her already working. Andre went and found himself a seat as he waited for his turn. He finally got his all-clear text from Tori.

He waited rather impatiently for Eva to be free, finally catching her attention an hour or so later.

"And what can I do for you?" Eva asked seductively in a sexy British accent.

Andre skipped right to the chase, taking a chance but potentially saving quite a bit of time, "I was hoping we could take this somewhere else."

She contemplated the offer, finally relenting with a sly grin that Andre knew meant trouble.

"Tell you what…you go find a...secluded motel, and just call me with the location, and I'll be over there when I get off work."

He agreed, and left after getting her phone number. He called a cab and asked to be taken to a secluded motel, just like Eva had asked for. When he arrived he had horrible flashbacks from the time Jade forced him to watch Psycho with her and Tori. The motel was something straight out of that movie, if he didn't know better, he'd say this was the actual filming location. Though it did lack the eerie house up on the hill and the 'Bates' signs, it was still creepy as hell.

As soon as he got a room, he found a working payphone and called Eva. Common sense reminded him that if he were to use his cell phone, his call could be traced back to him. Of course he also kept the gloves on to prevent fingerprints on anything. After notifying his booty call of the location, he lounged on the couch of the room until she arrived.

While Eva had her back to him as she was looking through her purse, Andre decided to go old school with a nasty pistol whip, instantly knocking her unconscious. He picked up a pillow from the couch, using it as a cheap silencer for the gun shot. Removing the pillow, he saw that he'd aimed it perfectly, and there was no way she could be alive after that.

He casually put the pillow back and put the gun back in the holster, making sure he had everything before taking one more look at Miss Payne, and left. After ditching the gun in a junk yard, he went back to the hotel to rest for the night.

Andre checked the time and realized they were doing just fine, and texted the others.

_**Andre: Put a whole new meaning to 'Drop Dead Gorgeous'. Jade, you're good to go.**_

**Targets remaining: 1**

**Time remaining: 2 days – 5 hours – 36 minutes – 45 seconds**

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><p><strong>AN: Andre's hit was short, apologies for that. Yes, Jade's going to get her very own chapter. Should be an interesting one.**

**Gonna just throw this out there, Barium Acetate is a real chemical compound, and is quite deadly. It's been proven one spoonful of it will kill a person in time. It's completely untraceable so I figured it'd be a cool one ;)**

**I was actually writing this while Psycho was on in the background, so I thought I'd add in that little bit. **

**I'll try to get the next chapter out sooner, but can't promise anything. Regardless, I hope this one was interesting enough.**


	5. The End is at the Beginning

**Disclaimer: Victorious and all of its associated copyrights are not my property and I stake no claim to them.**

**A/N: Oh man writer's block is evil. To combat that I've been working a lot on another story, so it should be interesting to see how that one turns out. Despite complications, here is the second to last chapter!**

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><p>Just waiting around, expecting a text saying you can go kill somebody seems like Jade's dream. Though after about four days it was beginning to get to her. One thing that has refused to leave her mind since the others left, one thing that has kept her up at night, one thing that really began to worry her.<p>

_Why was I last?_

Sure, in the beginning the whole thing just seemed like a game. It still felt like a game, but more like she was in a real game of Pacman on her last life with all four ghosts heading her way. Once upon a time the mere idea of experiencing Death in such a way was thrilling to her, now she deeply wished for a time machine to go back and _stay out _of that damned prison. The guilt was eating her alive, she not only put her own life at risk, but the lives of all of her friends too.

_But why was I last?_

Cat had arrived back in LA about a day ago, and Robbie had just landed a few hours ago. Beck had landed a while after Robbie, his flight being less of a hassle. Andre was en route, due back in a couple hours. Tori, however, had yet to tell anybody if she even got on the flight. Despite her intense worry for Tori, Jade knew she had to get this done, or the rest of them would be six feet under. As soon as she got Andre's text she looked over the one lead she had.

The others weren't too comfortable with letting Jade go alone, considering the clues she got regarding the girl, and convinced her that there wasn't any reason why the rest of them shouldn't go. She reluctantly allowed them to come and drove to the address, hoping to just get it over with and end this nightmare. The house was all the way on the other side of LA, so it took her a while to get there, despite her speeding. With her gun concealed and the knife in her pocket, she went up to the door, only to see a note taped to it.

**You've made it this far, well done. But oh my, I've always wanted to visit Hollywood Arts…**

Jade just looked at the note as if it were in a different language, not at all understanding what was going on. She took the note and got back in her car, reading it over and over. The others concluded that she was probably at Hollywood Arts. It finally clicked in Jade's mind that her target was just going to mess with her. She decided to play the game and drove over to HA.

It was rather odd to the gang, being here when school wasn't going on. It was just getting dark as they pulled up to Hollywood Arts. She didn't really know _where_ she was supposed to look, and after checking around the entire perimeter, they tried the front doors. There wasn't a note on the doors, so they looked inside. She looked at her locker first, habit, but nothing. Next they thought of Sikowitz's room, though it was empty, also very unusual to them.

She was getting increasingly more frustrated as they left his room, walking down the hall back to the front doors. As they were almost to the front entrance, Jade noticed an unusual white spot against a familiar starry black. Going up to Tori's locker, she picked off the note and read it.

**You know, when I found out that **_**you**_** were the one who was supposed to 'kill' me this time, I was rather intrigued. All the times before, it's always been someone with little to no potential. But you…ah, you have potential my dear. It's never been someone **_**younger **_**than **_**me**_** before, but I've heard you're quite the force to be reckoned with. Regardless, you and I have a date with destiny, and I look forward to meeting you. **

**P.S. Oh, right! Your clue, silly me. How about we take this back to my place, hmm? It's okay, your little girlfriend won't be back for quite some time. Good luck…Jadelyn.**

After reading that note, Jade nearly punched a hole through the locker next to Tori's in frustration and anger. She was pretty nervous about facing this chick to be honest, she seemed quite the mastermind. Despite her fury, she realized the girl never really said where she lived.

"So where do we go now?" Beck asked.

"It's a dead end, no point in staying here. Let's just go get some food and think about this," Robbie said.

The rest were hesitant to just go get food while their friend and girlfriend was totally MIA. They saw no point in starving themselves anyway, and figured they had time to find Tori and this Ambrosine character.

They managed to kill about a day and a half just desperately trying to find Tori, with no such luck. Finally giving up on that for the time being, they gathered around Jade's living room to think of a plan.

"So, we can't find Tori _anywhere_, I hacked into the LAX system, don't ask how, and figured out that she _did_ board a flight to LA from Colombia. Why she hasn't communicated with anyone yet is anybody's guess," Robbie told them.

"What do we do now then?" Cat asked, a little less fearful than before all of this.

Andre spoke up, "I'd bet the answer is again in those videos. We've just got to find it."

"Andre, we have over 36 hours of footage to look through, we don't have that kind of time!" Jade barked at him.

"Actually, with the five of us, we should be able to get through it pretty quick," Beck pointed out.

The rest agreed, and they got set up again to watch all of the tapes. Video after video after video they watched for hours, until all of them except for Jade passed out from exhaustion. It was about 8 in the morning when Jade finally heard something, after looking through what the others had as well.

_The end is at the beginning._

To put it bluntly, Jade was pissed with all these clues and riddles. She woke up the others so they could figure out what it meant.

Andre mumbled, "You're obviously exhausted if you don't get that. 'The end is at the beginning', it wants us to go back to the prison. Apparently your target lives there."

"FUCK'S SAKE!" Jade shouted in fury.

She was even more pissed at this point, taking no time in going back to her father's gun case, grabbing 2 guns for Andre and Cat, as Beck and Robbie had brought theirs back.

As they were getting ready to leave, Robbie decided to be the bearer of bad news again, "Hey, guys?"

"What?" Jade asked, barely interested.

"We have two hours left."

They all looked at him as if he just told them they were subjected to the death penalty, 'cause for all intents and purposes, they were. They left almost immediately after that, driving over to the prison at ridiculous speeds; even then it took almost an hour. Their cars were barely turned off before they hopped out and ran to the entrance, at least happy to see it was still open.

"Alright, there're three wings in the building, south, east, and west. Beck and Cat go to the south wing; Andre and Robbie go to the east wing. I, obviously, have the west wing," Jade said when they got inside.

Beck looked at her skeptically, "You're going alone?"

She just groaned in annoyance, "Yes, I am. Now let's go!"

They quickly departed to their respective wings to search. To top it all off, there were three stories to the building, so it would take longer than it would with only one floor. Regardless, they set off searching anyway. They all cleared the first floor, with no luck. The second floor was no different. The third floor, however, happened to be the one where all of the clips with the voice came through. Jade struggled to remember what wing the final clue came from.

She finally realized it was from the west wing, where she and Tori were filming almost a week ago. She checked the time on her phone, only to see they had 45 minutes left, with no sign of Ambrosine or Tori.

When she got to the end of the hall, she looked to her right and remembered this was the room where Robbie's doppelganger disappeared in. Sure enough, Tori was slumped against the back wall, tied up and completely out cold. Jade rushed in and cut her loose, disturbing the other girl enough that she came to, very confused.

"Wha…"

"No time, come on," Jade said as she helped her up and started to leave. As she got back out into the hall though, she got a text. Hoping it was from one of the others, she looked immediately.

_**Cat: Top of staircase opposite the front entrance. She's babbling, hurry up**_

Tori finally figured out what was going on and she and Jade rushed to the staircase connecting all of the wings. Just like Cat had said, there was a girl sitting at the top of the stairs telling a story. Jade just smirked as she walked up behind her, "Story time's over."

Ambrosine stopped her story telling and laughed, getting up to face Jade. She was kind of short, long brown hair that was slightly curly and had an innocent smile. "So glad you could make it! Ah, and I see you've found your girlfriend as well, that's fantastic, she can watch me kill you too."

"Try me," Jade growled.

She lunged at Jade, knocking her against the wall. Jade pushed her off easily, shoving her backwards towards the top of the stairs. Ambrosine raised a curious eyebrow, "That's all you've got?"

"I'm just getting warmed up," Jade replied with her signature smirk.

The girl made the mistake of assuming Jade was unarmed, and pulled out a switchblade, "Let's go then."

Jade pulled out the gun, pointing it right at her head, "Hasn't anybody ever told you, you can't bring a knife to a gun fight?"

She just laughed, "I've never had someone best me before, especially so quickly. I'll give you this one, but I'll be back."

Jade kicked her, similar to the way she kicked in the door of the prison almost a week ago, in turn making her fall down the stairs. The rest of the gang just stood back, knowing it wasn't over yet. Though one well-aimed shot from Jade's pistol ended it quickly. She went down the stairs to where Ambrosine was, checking to make sure she was dead.

This time everybody else watched as the large number 6 on Jade's arm faded.

Jade had a look of disbelief, "We did it...We cheated death."

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><p><strong>AN: Hmm... Guess they did pretty well for themselves eh? They're in the clear and they can get back to life now. The story behind Ambrosine will fill in a lot of blanks, so expect that in the epilogue of this story.**


	6. Ending the Nightmare

**Disclaimer: Victorious and all of its associated copyrights are not my property and I stake no claim to them.**

**A/N: This will be a short one, but it's all that I felt needed to be said. Here're most of the answers you guys wanted. This will just act as the epilogue of the story. I really enjoyed writing this one, and I hope you guys enjoyed reading it.**

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><p>Back at Jade's house, the six teens were sitting around the living room discussing the situation. Mostly Jade wanted to know what was up with this cloak and dagger Ambrosine.<p>

"I remember one thing she said during her story," Robbie started, "She said 'Only one person has ever bested me, such a shame he got away. Poor Daniel…'"

Hearing it a second time finally made it click for Cat, "Daniel? As in my ex-boyfriend Daniel?"

Robbie shrugged, "Could be. Has he been acting weird lately?"

She looked down at the floor, "He suffered from a severe case of PTSD, nobody knew why. Attempted suicide and got put in a mental ward. Five of his friends experienced the same thing, though some of them succeeded in their attempts."

Andre sighed and voiced what they were all thinking, "So we live through this just to end our own lives because of it?"

"If I die, I at least want to know what's up with Ambrosine first," Jade said.

"Do you think Daniel would tell us if we visited him?" Beck asked.

Tori shook her head, "They don't usually allow people into the mental ward, especially not a large group. Only one of us could go."

They all thought for a moment before 5 pairs of eyes were set on Cat, "Why me?!"

"You dated him, he probably has a soft spot for you still," Andre said.

Cat finally relented and agreed to go, leaving soon after. After Cat had left, the rest looked around at each other, Jade speaking first "What I want to know, is why Ambrosine said I bested her, yet she also said Daniel did. How could she be killed twice?"

"Somethin' makes me think we aren't dealing with anything human." Andre mumbled.

They all agreed with his theory, knowing there really wasn't another explanation. The remaining 5 did whatever they could to pass time as they waited for Cat to return. After two and a half hours passed, they were starting to get nervous. The thoughts of what Cat could've possibly learned, if anything, were unsettling to them. They didn't want to know, but they also wanted to know what the hell happened. The sound of a car pulling up in the driveway brought them all out of their thoughts. Cat came inside, looking unusually somber.

"So?" Jade asked.

"Sit down," Cat told them. They complied and waited for her to tell them what she learned.

"I spoke to Daniel, and though he seemed a bit fidgety, he was willing to talk, as he wanted people to know his story. He said…he said that Ambrosine is by no means a _real_ human, that she was a Dhamphiri, or a half-human, half-vampire." They all looked apprehensive at the word 'vampire'. "She's apparently picked up the trait of undeath, meaning she knows no ailments of mortality and is able to resurrect herself-if the body _isn't _destroyed."

Jade sighed, "So I fucked up. She's just gonna do this again."

Cat had a sad look, "Most likely. He also said that most everybody she's subjected to this has died in one way or another, and _not_ by natural causes. In most cases, when the six people can't kill all of their targets, or someone finds out, they all just drop dead on the spot, heart attacks, as they're usually ruled."

"So what do we do?" Andre asked.

Beck spoke up, "First, did Daniel tell you her backstory?"

"He did. Apparently she's young by vampire standards, only a few hundred years old, and she's been doing this ever since she was fully turned. She's been a vampire all her life, it was just set in stone at 17 when she came in contact with blood, and couldn't stay away from it. It awakened the vampire inside her, and her mortality is merely an illusion. As for _how_, she's pretty much just moved into whatever vacant building there is that would be a prime target for some kids to wander into. She creates the illusion of doppelgangers of the targets. First, they would see each other, and then if they don't leave, they see themselves, and the clock starts ticking. And the _why_, is very simple; she despises humans. No if ands or buts about it, she cannot stand humans. Therefore, if her targets are good enough, she'll kill off up to 11 people. Not a bad week's work."

The others just sat there trying to comprehend Cat's words, not really putting the pieces together. "So what about the story Robbie told us when we first found out?" Andre questioned.

Cat sighed, "Yeah, well it's kind of true. Except the portrayal of death, is just her shape shifted. She finds 11 people, and makes sure the 6 killers know each other, so they can collaborate and get it done better. Honestly, it's just a game to her, and she isn't going to stop until she's destroyed."

"How do we destroy her?" Andre asked.

"Kill her, destroy the body, burn it, and keep the ashes in parts and never let all six of them get in contact with each other. We apparently have to all have some of the ashes, and they can _never_ touch each other."

Jade voiced what they were all thinking, "So how do we get to her again?"

Cat pulled out her phone and checked the time, "She should still be dead. She stays dead for 24 hours before resurrecting, so I suggest we hurry."

Despite the fact they were scared as hell, they split up to drive back to the prison. On the drive over, Tori seemed a lot more subdued than the rest of them. Jade offered a hand to her girlfriend for some comfort, "It's gonna be okay."

Tori sighed, "You don't know that."

"Hey, I never lose fights, I don't intend to lose this one."

10 minutes later they were all stood outside the prison, their fears starting to get the better of them.

"Let's just get this over with," Jade mumbled as she walked up to the front doors. Straight in front of them a ways was the large staircase where Ambrosine was killed, and sure enough, she was at the bottom.

"Robbie, Cat, and Andre, can you guys go make a fire behind the building?" Jade asked, and the three nodded and went back out the front doors.

Jade sighed, "Alright then, let's get her out there."

Beck, Tori, and Jade picked her up and brought her around to the back, where the others were in the midst of building a huge fire. They put her body on top of the sticks, and then put more on top of her. Jade got out a lighter she'd brought just for this, and lit the ends of a few sticks, and soon the fire started spreading through the pile of wood. Within minutes the flames were reaching about 15 feet in the air, emitting a heat so intense the teens had to stand way back.

"We can just leave this here until it burns out, she won't be coming back." Beck said quietly.

"Then it's over?" Tori asked.

"We'll have to come back and get the ashes, but it's over," Jade reassured her.

They watched the fire in silence for a few minutes, Cat leaning on Beck for support, and Jade held onto Tori to keep her calm.

Watching the burning pile of sticks and a body, they were all somber as they were all thinking the same thing.

_Is it really over?_

* * *

><p>After improvising on the footage they got and adding commentary about their story, making it seem just that, a story. They told the tale of how six kids killed off six other people, and destroyed the body of a vampire.<p>

Sikowitz thought it was brilliant, and never remotely expected it was actually a true story. But sometimes the most unnerving horror stories are the ones that are based on true events.

But nobody will ever know that. Nobody will ever know about murdering somebody, and ultimately cheating death. The story will be known, but nobody will believe the reality of it.

The 6 kids managed to stay calm mentally, after a string of breakdowns soon after the fact; they were all able to continue with life. The urns all of them kept of the incident were never talked about. The missing weapons and dent in Mr. West's finances were never questioned. Their thereafter shared fear of vampires, even Jade, was never made substantial. As far as everybody else knows, nothing ever happened.

Nobody will ever know.


End file.
